Three Switches Of The Compassion Mindset: An Origin Story

Recently, Julie and I moved from our home in Newton, KS, to the Kansas City area to be closer to our adult children and new grandson. Although I’m happily adjusting to life in a new space after nearly 30 years in Newton, I miss the old routines and familiarity.

Lately, I’ve been feeling nostalgic about the good old days before Covid. From our inception in 2008, Next Element’s headquarters were in the historic Newton Train Station.  In Fall of 2020 we ended our lease and moved out, anticipating that we were probably never going back to that way of working. I struggled to let go of this space and the memories it held for me. For several months after our team went fully remote, I still came to the office and worked alone because I wasn’t ready to let go.

Creating A Space For All

We had a wonderful space with tons of character where we made so many memories and hatched so many great ideas. We created that space to include and energize all different personality types, stimulate creativity, and feel at home. Here are a few of the “features” we enjoyed.

• Windows on four sides allowing sunlight and views at all times of day and in all seasons. This included seeing and hearing dozens of trains coming through town. We had a love-hate relationship with the trains!
• A bathroom where people were encouraged to write on the walls with permanent markers; sharing their bits of wisdom with others.
• A metal palm tree covered with lights to celebrate our partner Sandy Gieber’s Brazilian heritage, and also just for fun!
• Plenty of comfortable furniture, pillows, and lap blankets.
• A formal, professional training room and a more casual and relaxed training room.
• Access to toys, games, whiteboards, and other props.
• A common kitchen where people could gather and socialize over coffee, tea, snacks, and our favorite sweet treat, Hershey’s Nuggets.
• A vision board.
• One window without a screen where we could crawl out onto the roof to show guests the “skyline view” of Newton during parties.

If you are reading this and you were ever in our office, will you share a memory by commenting on this post?

Three Switches Origin Story

One of the most significant discoveries that came out of this space was the Three Switches of The Compassion Mindset, which is the foundation of our Compassionate Accountability® framework and the focus of our newest book, Compassionate Accountability: How Leaders Build Connection and Get Results. Here’s a little reenactment of how it went down.

Capstone and Prequel

This book is both a culmination of 15 years of creative work, research, and experience at Next Element and a prequel narrating the original vision, values, and behavioral framework upon which our company was founded. We pioneered Compassionate Accountability more than years ago, long before the term became popular. Here’s one of my early posts, “Seven Steps for Taking Someone Off Your Naughty List”. We’ve been assessing, training, testing, refining, and tracking outcomes for these principles for a long time. We’ve been inspired by the difference our clients are making by applying this framework in their organizations.

It’s all part of our mission to bring Compassionate Accountability to every workplace and touch one million lives before 2030.

Compassionate Accountability stands the test of time. The principles are timeless, the applications are relevant, and never before in our history has the need for compassion AND accountability been greater.

Join The Movement: Start Here

I’ve interviewed over 60 people who are advancing the principles of Compassionate Accountability in some way around the world. Watch short videos capturing highlights of these conversations and get a flavor for what makes Compassionate Accountability such a powerful framework for transformation.

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